To facilitate the carrying and storage of skis, it is a common practice to provide an elastic member by which the skis of a pair are tied together with their running surfaces juxtaposed or in contact with one another. In its simplest form such a device can be a strip whose ends can be interconnected and which can be passed completely around a pair of skis so positioned.
Because such ties may be lost, it is known to provide the skis with members performing the same function, i.e., the interconnection of the skis of each pair.
For example, a housing may be provided upon the upper surface of each ski from which an elastic band can be withdrawn and resiliently extended so as to pass around the edges of a pair of skis and hook onto the housing of a similar device of the other ski. When two such elastic bands are used in this manner, the ski is securely held by the elastic force of the bands, each band of one device being hooked onto the other device after passing around respective edges of the next.
In the relaxed condition of each band, the intrinsic elasticity retracts the band practically completely within the respective housing in which one end of the band is anchored, the housing having an opening through which the free end of the band can be grasped to withdraw the band and pass this free end around the respective edges of the ski.
The free end of the band can be formed with a grip to facilitate engagement by the hand of the user and in a retracted position, this grip and the respective eye, which is engageable by hook action with the other device, lies practically within the outline of the housing and does not extend beyond the edge of the ski to interfere with the skiing operation.
While such devices have been found to be highly desirable and indeed advantageous for the purposes described, the conventional units of this type exert excessive stretch upon the band in the fully extended position thereof and thus require larger bands and hence a device whose overall dimensions may be greater than is desired. Furthermore, excessive stress may be placed at the points at which the retained end of the band is anchored to the housing.